


cedar tree

by viscrael



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: (can be read as platonic but wasnt intended that way), Fluff, Gen, Sunsets, set right after heavens arena, whale island
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 21:12:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4761194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viscrael/pseuds/viscrael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Killua, look! The sky!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	cedar tree

**Author's Note:**

> in which killuas never been on a picnic and somehow this ended up being significantly more abt sunsets than intended?
> 
> this is set when they go to whale island, in b/t the heavens arena arch and the yorkshin arch

Whale Island is busiest in summer, when it’s hot outside and best for fishing, so the boardwalk is full of people, and when Gon gives Killua a tour of the town, the market is crowded. They push through throngs of people, Gon waving when someone says hello and occasionally making polite conversation, which in turn holds them up and makes their errands take even longer.

Killua doesn’t say anything. He watches his friend conversing with childhood friends, family friends, whomever—he doesn’t really, fully _get_ this yes, this, this life he lives, because it’s normal, probably, but entirely different from what he’s used to. He just watches with hands pushed in his short pockets, observing the way Gon’s face lights up, the hands he’s throwing around as he talks, smiles so wide before he waves and they keep going.

Mito had asked that they go on a grocery run, and Killua holds the list of what they’re supposed to be picking up, letting Gon lead this expedition and excitedly show him the different vendors. Killua finds himself laughing along at something the other has said; he mentally checks off another thing from the list as Gon pays for it with the money his aunt gave them, puts the food in their shared bag and heads off to the next place.

It takes an hour, maybe two, before they’re entirely done, and they head back to the house, talking about something or another. The sun is going down, but Killua doesn’t really notice it until they’re standing at the doorstep of Gon’s house and Gon points it out.

“Killua, look!” he says, pointing excitedly. “The sky!”

“It’s setting,” Killua says. “What are you getting so excited about? It does that every day.”

Gon shakes his head, still pointing and still smiling. “But it doesn’t _look_ like that everyday.”

Killua frowns. “Yes it does.”

“Nuh-uh! It looks different every time it sets, and every time it rises.” Gon pushes the door open, conversation apparently over, and calls, “Mito-san! We’re home!”

She pops her head out from the kitchen, waving at them. “Hi, boys!”

Killua doesn’t say anything, taking his shoes off at the door and giving a last lingering glance at the sky before the door shuts behind him and he can’t see it anymore.

“What took you both so long?” Mito asks, walking into the foyer as she wipes her hands with a dishrag. Gon slips his own shoes off and takes the extra bags from his friend, before bounding into the kitchen with the groceries and putting them on the kitchen table.

“Gon had a lot of people to talk to,” Killua answers for him, as he’s busy taking everything out. Mito nods in understanding, going to help unpack.

“Oh, I see. Well, did you have fun at least?” She smiles politely, question aimed at Killua.

He shrugs. “Sure.” He doesn’t particularly like going grocery shopping, he’s come to realize, but he likes being with Gon, and he likes Whale Island, so it was worth it. She smiles again.

“I’m glad,” she says, and continues helping to unpack. He stands a little bit further away from them, unsure about what to do to help, because he’s not sure where anything goes but he feels stupid just standing there. Gon notices and says he can go take a bath while they do this.

“You get first turn tonight,” he says, grinning, “but don’t expect that every time!”

So Killua does, making his way upstairs to the bathroom with its window overlooking a hill and the setting sun. As he washes, he can’t help but keep glancing outside, trying to figure out what was exactly so exciting to the other boy. Is it just that it looked pretty? He frowns. Maybe Gon just gets excited too easily. Maybe he isn’t the one who’s being weird this time.

He gets out of the bath just to close the blinds (soap dripping onto the floor in the process) in hopes that it will get him to think about something else. It doesn’t.

He gets downstairs twenty minutes later, hair still damp, to see the table being set.

“Do you wanna help?” Gon asks, referring to the plates he’s putting out. Killua nods, rubs his palms flat on the fabric of his shorts (Gon’s shorts, actually; he borrowed some clothes), and goes to get four cups, filling them with ice. Mito asks if his bath was okay. He says yes for lack of anything better to say and wishes the kitchen window were closed. He keeps catching himself glancing out it when he isn’t thinking hard not to.

Dinner is ten minutes later, and Killua is surprised that he’s able to hold conversation with Gon’s grandmother and aunt without feeling uncomfortable; he feels at ease here, on Whale Island with them, and eating dinner together feels a bit unusual (because he’s never really _had_ a family dinner like this, not really) but not unpleasant, nor unwanted. It’s nice.

“We have a lot of leftovers,” Mito says, once dinner is over and they’re helping put dishes away. “You boys will need to help get rid of some of it before it goes bad.”

“We could go on a picnic,” Gon suggests, scrubbing a pot in the kitchen sink. “Right, Killua?”

Killua puts a fork in the dishwasher and blinks. “A picnic?”

The dark-haired boy nods, still scrubbing. Bubbles stick to his elbows as he washes. “We could go tomorrow, if you wanted to. There’s a hill that’s great for picnicking—that’s usually where tourists and stuff go, on anniversaries and other stuff, but I go there with Mito-san sometimes, and it’s not so bad even if other people are there.” He keeps talking, but it only confuses the other more.

“Gon,” he interrupts finally, and at his name, the boy stops his chattering, dumping the pot full of bubbles down the drain. “What’s a picnic?”

“You don’t know what a picnic is?” He responds, looking surprised. He’s still got soap covering all up his arm. “Have you never been on one?”

“Apparently not.” Killua takes the pot from him and puts it in the dishwasher, struggling to figure out how to make room for it for a moment, before he decides on a position and sticks with it. “What is it?”

“It’s…” Gon pauses and taps his chin, leaving soap right below his lip as proof of his thought process, seemingly mulling over the best explanation in his head. “A picnic is where you put food in a basket and go sit outside and eat with someone you like.”

Killua wrinkles his nose. “Why would you eat outside if you don’t have to?”

Gon laughs. “Because it’s fun, I guess? Mito-san always packed our food and put it in a big whicker basket for us, and we’d go sit on that hill and watch the people from up there—oh, and we’d put a blanket down to sit on so we don’t have to get our food dirty. It’s a lot of fun. I can’t believe you’ve never been on a picnic before! Although I guess your mansion isn’t around the best areas to go picnicking in…”

Killua takes a plate that’s been handed to him and puts it in the washer, mulling the information over in his head. “Okay. Let’s go on a picnic then.”

He sees Mito smile from where she’d been watching the exchange, wiping down the table. “When will you go?”

“We can go tomorrow, right, Killua?”

He grins. “Right.”

 

\--

 

And tomorrow comes quicker than expected. Mito packs their left overs in a big box and sets it in a basket, folded with a cloth over it and a few drinks packed in beside the container. They mean to go at lunchtime, but something comes up and Gon gets busy (someone in town needs help or something; Killua doesn’t quite listen to the whole explanation), so they end up having to put it off until dinner.

Five o’clock rolls around, and Gon finally gets home, apologizing for taking so long, and they head out. It’s a twenty minute walk there, but Killua doesn’t mind so much; Gon keeps talking, telling stories about when he was little and things he used to do on Whale Island growing up—stuff Mito did for him as his impromptu mom, and the fish he had to catch to be permitted to take the Hunter Exam.

He talks and talks, and Killua tells him stories in return, the good ones at least, and its clear just how different the circumstances are. He feels a little stupid, talking about Canary and his butlers while Gon talks about the lullabies Mito sang to him, but the other doesn’t seem to mind, so he doesn’t stop.

They reach the top of the hill and lay out a blanket beneath a big cedar tree. Gon explains things about the art of picnicking every now and then, smooths out the blanket as they sit down, and goes about unpacking their food. Killua grins at something he’s said and takes out his own food. It’s a little cold from their walk up there, but he doesn’t mind.

“Hey, Killua,” Gon asks, mouth full of food, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

The white-haired boy thinks about it. What does he want to be? Alive, he guesses. Stronger, maybe. Away from his parents.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I’ve never really thought about it.”

“Hmm…” Gon mulls the information over, swallows his food, and speaks in explanation. “When I was little, I wanted to be a hunter like my dad. But I guess I am one now, huh?” He smiles.

“So, then, what do you want to be _now_?”

“I don’t know.”

Killua looks away, takes a bite of some sort of sandwich. It’s not bad, he thinks, but then again, he isn’t really tasting it right now anyway.

“We’ll both just have to figure it out, won’t we?” Gon leans back on his hands, looking at the sky. It’s started setting; it must be nearing seven o’clock now. “We can figure that part out together. For now, I just want to find Ging.”

_We can figure that part out together_. Killua thinks about that, and then smiles. “Yeah, I guess we can.”

“Oh, look!” Gon points at the sky, mirroring yesterday. “It’s all orange today.”

The other thinks about saying _it’s orange most days_ , but remembers what Gon had said, about it being different every time it sets and every time it rises. He’d seen it rise a million times, and he’d seen it set even more, but he’d never noticed it looking different.

It’s just the sky, he thinks, and frowns again, because that feels wrong to think now. It feels different today somehow, like it’s been the same every time until this one. He takes another bite of his sandwich and leans back on his heels to match Gon.

“It’s pretty,” he settles on saying finally, and Gon turns to him.

“You think so?”

“Isn’t it?”

Gon smiles. “Yeah. I think so too.”

They make the trip back home once night falls, but Killua is still thinking about the sunset.


End file.
